Source: San Francisco Bay Guardian Contact: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 Dope ropa Hemp clothing loosens up. By Britt Schoenhoff For centuries hemp has been used to make clothes in countries around the world with the exception of the United States, where it's been illegal to grow hemp since 1937. But over the last few years boutiques specializing in hemp fashions have sprouted up across the Bay Area. Stores such as Two Star Dog, Frankel Brothers Hemp Outfitters (FBHO), and Labyrinth Phassions and Costumes carry hemp clothing that caters to both environmentally and fashionconscious customers. Hemp, a highquality, renewable resource, can be used to produce pesticidefree, UVprotective clothing that people feel good in and feel good about wearing. Brothers Steven and Allen Boutrous, who began Two Star Dog in 1993, decided to start their business because they believed that there was a niche for hip hemp apparel. "There was nothing environmental in fashion at the time," Steven says. "Everything that was made of hemp looked like burlap sacks." The brothers recruited designer Stella Carakasi who has infused a contemporary yet classic feel into the line's garments. Carakasi, who designs men's and women's fasions for the company, constructs her clothes out of hemp fabric imported from China. She finds the fabric intriguing and inspiring but somewhat frustrating to work with: the industrial hemp textile is tough to manipulate in its raw form, though it does soften up and become malleable after it has been washed and treated with lowimpact, chemicalfree fiber reactive dyes. "It's a very termpermental fabric because it shrinks and then stretches," Carakasi says. Despite some of the designing difficulties inherent in using hemp fabric, Carakasi is committed to facing the challenges of working with the weed. "Now that I've figured out what the fabric can and can't do, I'm having fun," she says. "I've started making more fitted styles and replacing zippers in elasticwaist items." The quality, durability and comfort of the linenlike fabric motivates Carakasi to pursue and expand hemp's sartorial possibilities. Similar incentives prompted Bob and Dave Frankel to start their own hemp clothing business, FBHO. The Noe Valley shop showcases a variety of brand names, including Two Star Dog, Hempy's and Indigenous Designs. The clothes carried in the store are consistently upbeat and urban, appealing to the practical consumer who shops at the Gap or Banana Republic but with a liberal dash of attititude. "We look for personality in the products we select," Dave says. Jennifer Jensen's vision embodies the theatrical peices she crafts for her company, Labyrinth Phassions and Costumes. Jensen's costume aesthetic, meshed with an exotic flavor and offset by eclectic color combinations such as chartreuse and burgundy, result in distinctive highfasion hemp ensumbles. Her new Summerian line, modeled and named after mythical goddesses, incorporates her innovative use of silkcreens on hemp fabric. Dave Frankel says fashion can provide the perfect vehicle for educating people about hemp's versatility. "Most people don't know our products are made of hemp until they look at the tag," Frankel says. "We're helping to translate a somewhat radical industry to the suitandtie crowd." [Picture of Two Star Dog jeans, Labyrinth outfit and hemp women's business suit from BH Designs]